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Flamingo Land
Flamingo Land is a Park that is located in England. It opened in 1959 by the name of "Yorkshire Zoo." Previous names of the park include "Flamingo Park." and "Theme Park." History History of Flamingo Land Flamingo Land Resort began in 1959, when an old, small and bankrupt country club was bought up by a resident of Scarborough; an entrepreneur in the cinema and theatre industry by the name of Edwin Pentland Hick. Hick named the site The Yorkshire Zoological Gardens and initially covered a mere nine acres of land. However Hick had grand ideas for the park; a vision which he had since military service during World War II. Hick has been described as both an eccentric and a visionary by his critics. He originally rented animals until receipts allowed him to buy more. Hick wanted to have dolphins in his park, which at that time were not found anywhere in captivity in the UK. In 1963 he organized expeditions to many locations around the world to capture bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales, including to the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Greenland. Hick was commended for his treatment of the animals, which were fed well and kept in expansive enclosures. One of the dolphins was named Sooty after Corbett's creation. A colony of pink flamingos were among the first animals to be housed on site and, remaining one of the most popular group of animals in the zoo, the flamingos became a kind of mascot for the entire park (hence Pentland Hick's final choice of name for the park.) The descendants of the original flamingos are still resident in the zoo today, and the flamingo colony at the park remains the largest in the country. Throughout the 1960s a small fun fair began to be held on the site, yet another idea of Hick's, only to steadily gain momentum and bring more and more visitors to the site. In the 1970s, the fun fair was well established and amusement rides had become a permanent fixture of the park simultaneous to the zoo, becoming the first site in Europe to combine the attractions in one location. Pentland Hick, believing his "vision" complete, floated the company on the London Stock Exchange as Associated Pleasure Parks in 1965, and officially renamed the site Flamingo Park Zoo on Monday 12 July 1968. The ownership of the site began to shift about with the steady growth of the park, eventually being sold in full to Scotia Leisure Ltd, a company which dealt mainly with bingo halls and package holidays. However a director of that leisure company was Robert Gibb, who cared for the park greatly and decided to buy the park from the company in 1978, shortly before Scotia Leisure collapsed due to an embezzlement scandal that also left Pentland Hick broke. Hick abandoned the park, moving into theatre and television scriptwriting, and becoming an author. Meanwhile, his protégé Robert Gibb set up his own board of directors for the park and formed Flamingo Land Ltd. Gibb renamed the park Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo and developed the complex so that it was more suited to be a nation-wide instead of a local tourist attraction, including developing the growth of the amusement rides and the uniqueness of the animals cared for in the zoo. It was slow process, but a successful one. The year 1991 (whilst still under Robert Gibb's management) was one of the most productive in the park's history; it was in this year that the famous roller coasters Bullet and Thunder Mountain were constructed. Robert Gibb died in a car accident in 1995. His son Gordon Gibb, only 18 at the time, took control of the park with the rest of family, later becoming the chief executive of Flamingo Land Ltd. Pleasure Island Flamingo Land also used to operate Pleasure Island Family Theme Park in Cleethorpes since its opening in 1993 until 2010, when it became independent.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8645522.stm On the former site of Cleethorpes Zoo, construction for an amusement park began in the 1990s by RKF Entertainment. During this time RKF went into administration and Robert Gibb purchased the site as a second park to Flamingo Land. When his son Gordon Gibb became Chief Executive of the company, his sister Vicky Gibb and later other sister Melanie Wood (née Gibb) took the responsibility for the Cleethorpes park. In 2010 Melanie Wood completed her desire to take ownership of the park, separate from the rest of the family company. Pleasure Island is now operated by Dewarsavile Enterprises Ltd, directed by Mrs Wood. This marked the end of Pleasure Island and Flamingo Land's association and the two parks are now independent of each other. The park still holds many indications of Flamingo Land's ownership. In the past, rides cleared from Flamingo Land for new development were installed at Pleasure Island.?Furthermore, the success of the Flamingo Land Lost Kingdom show, the Bongo Warriors, led to the introduction of a copy concept into Pleasure Island under the name Masai Warriors show. References